MEDEA
HERE AND NOW EDITOR’S NOTE BY JOSEPH WHELAN
As we present an online reading of Charles Martin’s Medea, we are acutely aware of how well Euripides’ ancient play speaks to our world today, a connection expertly illuminated by this nimble translation. The questionable moral universe of Euripides’ tragedy finds succinct expression in a speech by the Nurse at the play’s beginning:
Dangerous the minds of rulers: Because they only issue orders Which they seldom follow, They find it hard to give up anger.
Today, we might well ask: In what moral universe does an angry ruler trample lawful demonstrators with tear gas and brute force, not in the name of justice, not in the name of rights, not even in the name of law and order, but for that Holy Grail of our morally enfeebled universe—the perfect photo op? Bankrupt does as bankrupt is, morally or otherwise. Sad to think that given the
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Euripides “asks us to (re)consider a series of questions that at heart revolve around issues of injustice: who is deserving of rights in a society? Who is valued and matters, and at what cost?” – April Sweeney racially motivated murderous events of the past few weeks we can respond to this angry ruler’s symbolic (yet defining) act of societal dissolution as King Lear’s Edgar does upon learning of Edmund’s death: “That is but a trifle here.”
ters, and at what cost?” The answers are appallingly obvious and painful: we see every day who is deemed not worthy of rights, who is not valued, and the incalculably high cost paid. As has often been noted, a classic is a classic because it speaks anew to every age. Medea certainly meets that standard. It is also a work that, as Charles Martin notes, gives our sympathies “quite a workout.” Therein Medea succeeds as a work of art as well, an exceptional work of the theatre. And to give Euripides his due, though the moral universe of Medea may be deplorable, it is not without redemption. The next two lines of the Nurse’s speech read:
In this edition of StageView, Charles Martin describes Medea as “a woman who has been abandoned by her husband (along with their children) and she is a stateless person, a political refugee.” For how many millions around the world is this true at this very moment? Colgate University professor and Medea director April Sweeney notes that Euripides “asks us to (re)consider a series of questions that at heart revolve around issues of injustice: who is deserving of rights in a society? Who is valued and mat-
It is better to get used to being On equal terms with people.
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